The present invention relates generally to information exchange, and more particularly to information exchange using DTMF signaling over telephone communication channels.
In real life, people exchange numbers and information all the time. Typically such information exchange is performed verbally or using paper documents. With the advent of computer systems and digital data communications technology, such information is now commonly exchanged over various computer networks such as the Internet using various protocols and communication applications. E-mail is perhaps the most prevalent form of information exchange today.
Using telephone communications technology, people exchange information using sending apparatus and receiving apparatus, however, such exchange is usually limited to verbal information exchange. As one example, one individual may provide a phone number or address information to a second individual using a telephone. The second individual must write down the information, which may not be convenient, or commit it to memory for writing down at a later time. For example, the second user may be using a cell phone and not have the ability to immediately write the information down. In the case of a programmable cell phone, the second user may immediately manually program a phone number into the cell phone, however this tends to disrupt the conversation with the first user.
Additionally, other information such as address information is not generally the type of information for which a cell phone is designed to conveniently store.
The number system is widely used throughout the world in telephone systems because of its simplicity and the deployed apparatus are easy to use. Dual tone multifrequency (DTMF) signaling is a signaling scheme used in telephone systems to transmit the characters 0–9, and the * and # characters found on standard telephone keypads, and is primarily used to “dial” telephone numbers, i.e., direct calls to an appropriate receiving apparatus. DTMF is a technique that converts numbers (and select characters) to a particular frequency set, which can be converted back to the particular number. Yet, numbers are not electronically exchanged through the voice band even though sending and receiving apparatus are capable of receiving numbers using DTMF signaling in parallel to voice band while a voice conversation session is active.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide systems, methods and protocols for exchanging information between sending and receiving apparatus using DTMF signaling.